Award-winning production 'Hiraeth' comes to Exeter

‘Hiraeth’ story of a farmer’s daughter and winner of ‘Best Production in the English Language’ at the Wales Theatre Awards 2015 tours UK this Spring

In the summer of 1989, a farmer’s wife gave birth to a baby girl. In this moment Buddug James Jones became heir to her family’s three hundred year old farming dynasty. Now as a modern young woman, Bud is desperate to change her destiny. Leaving five generations of tradition behind, she sets out alone into the big smoke encountering men, heartbreak, drama and hilarity along the way accompanied by live music and Welsh cakes and a Twmpath.

The show is a personal reflection on the wider contemporary issues currently affecting the UK countryside as younger generations leave behind rural life for more secure urban futures and feel the burden of the impact this has on the people and places they leave behind. Hiraeth follows Bud’s story, retelling her life with honesty, humour and integrity. ‘It’s a warm, comforting, cwtch of a show; where nostalgia, poignancy and laughter sit side by side’ (Gareth Lloyd Roberts, Artistic Director, Aberystwyth Arts Centre).

Hiraeth is a Welsh word with no direct English translation; it is a mix of longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness and desire – a pride you feel for your roots and a sadness for the loss of a way of life. The show rejoices in this universal emotion with which everyone can empathise even as Bud wrestles with the knowledge that her departure marks a time of change and sounds the death knell for the family farm. Through one woman’s struggle to escape and let go, Hiraeth explores the decline of Welsh identity and tradition.

Some venues will also receive a ‘twmpath’ at the end of the show hosted by Buddug and Max accompanied by fiddler David Grubb.

The company began creating the show in 2011 with the support of Wales Millennium Centre’s Incubator project, with further support by Arts Council Wales and National Theatre Wales TEAM. After three years in the making, and a critically acclaimed run at Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2014, a successful Autumn 2014 tour of Wales, a London run at Soho Theatre, ‘Hiraeth’ is heading to venues and rural village halls across the UK this Spring and Summer before a tour of New Zealand this Autumn.

Hiraeth is being staged at the Bike Shed Theatre in Exeter on Monday 27 April at 7.30pm.

For tickets please visit http://www.bikeshedtheatre.co.uk/